Uncertainty explained!

So I don't have any more information about what I'll actually be teaching, but I do know now why I don't know. It's the government's fault!

Apparently our school only has about half the number of teachers that we need and the regional government is supposed to assign more teachers here. But the government hasn't decided who to send us which means the school doesn't even know what the teachers who are already here will actually be teaching.

Today we did get a copy of the daily schedule for the semester (red stamped, so you know it's official!). The students' time is scheduled from 6:50 AM to 8:30 PM including exercises, meals, classes, and study time. My favorite descriptor is "环保实践" which literally translates to "environmental protection practice" but apparently consists of cleaning.

Until our additional teachers arrive the rest of us will be "supervising" classes. I have no idea what this entails. It honestly sounds harder than normal teaching.

Some maybes...

1. We may have internet in our rooms in about a month. Or two. (So please don't think I'm ignoring you if I don't respond to a message! I may not have made it to the teacher's office that day, or like much of yesterday, the power may have gone out...)
2. I may be teaching third grade English.
3. I may also be teaching third grade music.
4. There may be a curriculum for said music class.
5. School may start tomorrow.

Actually, though, it sounds like school really does start tomorrow. It is less clear, however, what exactly that means. The students will be arriving tonight (at least the c.a. 900 of them who live at school rather than in the town itself), but tomorrow's schedule is still entirely unknown to us fellows.

Other Teach for China fellows in our district came to town today so we spent a while just visiting and chatting. Apparently the fellows at the other schools have been told that the reason they haven't started yet is because they're waiting for our school. The rumor is that our school is in the process of combining with another school which is why there's so much construction and we're not ready to start yet. This was news to us!

I was, however, able to obtain a copy of the third grade English textbook! The look on their faces when I asked for it was rather amusing. It was something like: "oh, I suppose we could get that for you if you really want it..." I'm still waiting for the purported music textbook. I just hope I can understand some of it!

Third grade is the first year of English here. In other regions sometimes they don't start until seventh grade (and are then expected to pass a difficult English test in ninth grade in order to be admitted to high school). It's going to be interesting finding the "partial immersion" line between them not understanding anything I say and them not getting enough practice with English.

The textbook begins with hello, good morning, my name is, etc. Which, for oral English, is a good start. But no one has taught them the alphabet yet. So I'm going to work that into the first few weeks of the curriculum too.

This is the final story of the book (to be finished in December):

I could deal with fairies painting the flowers for spring to come, but butterflies?

Living in the Clouds: 界头镇中心小学

I am living in the clouds. But actually, here’s the view from my bedroom:

There's often a line of clouds at the base of the mountains which is about eye-level from my fifth-floor dorm.

When we were told that the teacher's dorms were brand new, we didn't realize that they meant unfinished. But it's a lot of space--two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen (currently empty)--with much potential. With the efforts of some workmen as well as Katherine and myself, it's already pretty homey! Here are some pictures to show its evolution:

Living room and balcony.

From the balcony door looking at the front door (covered in blue plastic) and empty kitchen.

There was nothing in the bedrooms except these beds (this sort of wooden plank is a typical bed in China).

So the first step (given what I had with me from the last month) was to make my bed!

The colour itself was a great addition.

And I put up the wall hanging that I bought in Dali. Unfortunately the double-sided tape didn't stick well to the fabric, so I'm going to have to find another method of hanging it.

Then they brought us furniture and curtains! They gave us two of these benches, two cupboards for clothes, and three classroom desks (mine is functioning as a nightstand).

And then...they put in fake-wood floors (the kind that comes in a big roll). They are much more comfortable to walk on, easier to clean, and more colourful than the concrete! (Of course, with furniture already in the room, the floor installation required quite a lot of moving of furniture and all the stuff we had unpacked, not knowing there'd be flooring...)

Doesn't it look homey now?

I even got a cheap collapsible wardrobe to hang my clothes in! I was hoping for the classy blue fabric shown on the box, but I got flowers and watermelon instead.

We've been contemplating comfy, but not ridiculously expensive, seating options for the living room. Today we noticed a wicker bench outside of the teacher's office and found that it was surprisingly comfortable. When we asked where we could get something like it, they told us to take it!

On the first evening the power was out, so we were given some candles. The candlelight was nice, but I couldn't help thinking about fire safety's reaction not only to the candle and flame, but to my makeshift candle holder! (But all was well, and now I have a tacky ceramic elephant candle holder.)

Last night's sunset over the mountains, taken from by bedroom window.

Here is the school itself and, of course, our beautiful mountains in the background. I really couldn't ask for more beautiful environs!



This morning there was lots of noise as students cleaned, were talked to, clapped, and shouted back responses.

I probably won't start teaching until Monday (although even this seems a little vague). Apparently the students went home today and will be back on Sunday. More details to come!

大理故城 Dali Gucheng (Old Town)

We were given a few days vacation before our final training and Principal Day, so a lot of us went to Dali (大理). The old city, 故城 gucheng, is very picturesque. Also, there's lots of yummy food including western food like pancakes, cheese, and chocolate mousse! Here are just a few highlights.

A view of Dali looking south-southwest across old town and toward the mountains.

The main street from north to south in old town. The last picture was taken from the top of this tower.

A few different art forms in Gucheng.

The southern entrance to Gucheng through the old wall.

Dragon!

My friend Rachel, also a first year Teach for China fellow, with the wall and mountains in the background.

Making silver bars on the street.

Hammering said silver bar.

This adorable creatures were in our hostel courtyard. How many can you find?

I've been restraining myself from petting all of the other
animals I see around, but the not-quite-one-month-old kittens
were a special exception. (Thanks to Rachel for the picture!) 

Teaching summer camp!

I just finished three weeks of teaching summer camp! I taught one 40-minute English period everyday and the singing portion of our activity class. My students performed Let it Go at their talent show and got some hearty applause and gasps from their fellow students. 

My students at the talent show.

Class art work was also on display. Here's one of two posters my students made using origami flowers.

Even more excitingly, though, all my students passed their final! Here's my strongest student, Alex. He got 100%.

Instead of the typical Asian peace/bunny ears, Alex is giving an "okay"
which is what I ask them to do when they finish an activity. 

This is the whole class on the last day. We gave them certificates with personal notes of encouragement (as suggested by one of the other teachers of by class). I get the sense that the giving of certificates is a pretty common occurrence, but they seemed to like it.

The students were so sweet as they left. One of them said "we love you" and all of them made sure to say goodbye on their way out.

That time the road disappeared...

Yesterday evening I decided to go with a friend to the little convenience store around the corner to get some yogurt and cashew milk for dessert. We walked through the school gate to find this where the road should be:

Another week in Dayao

It's the end of my second week of teaching! On the one hand, it's hard to believe that I've been here for almost a month. On the other hand, I'm really starting to settle in. To Dayao and to teaching. Here are a few moments from the past week.

Market day (Sunday) in Dayao.

Ducklings in the market.

"Dayao Xian Minzu Zhongxue"
Dayao County Ethnic Middle School. The front gate.

Friday's activity. First everyone find a matching
question and answer. Then as a group assemble the dialogue!

The sunset as I write this.

Tagore in Rural China

I asked my students to write me a dialogue or story, suggesting that they could write about something they did this summer with the vocabulary we've been learning (lots of past tense verbs). I got lots of stories about playing basketball or climbing mountains (both of which are in the curriculum). This one surprised me though.

Okay, so it's not perfect, but she quoted Tagore! I'm impressed.

Teaching!

I just survived my first week of teaching! I am only teaching for about an hour a day, but it's still absolutely exhausting, especially as we have to observe other teachers in the morning, take Chinese, pedagogy, and leadership classes in the afternoon, and still have to plan lessons in the evening! But it was also a lot of fun. Here are some highlights from the week.

The first day all three teachers (math/science, humanities, and English) taught class together. This meant, of course, that it was mostly in Chinese. I made sure, however, that when the students introduced themselves they also said "My name is _______ ." and one English sentence, any English sentence. Some said their whole introductions in English as well. Several of them like to play chess, several of them like to sing, and two of the boys like to eat hamburgers. Most of them told me at least that they "have a happy family". One of the shyer girls couldn't think of anything to say, stood uncomfortably for a few moments trying to come up with something, and then simply blurted out "Good luck!"

The agenda for the first day.
I need to work on writing on the board.

The humanities teacher and I had an interesting disagreement about the class rules when we were preparing for class. I thought that "respect the class" should be the most important rule, since all the others actually stem from it, so I asked if it could be either first or last. She thought, however, that it was important that they sort of go in chronological order: beginning, during, and after class.

The class rules.

On Tuesday I gave a diagnostic test. The scores ranged from 38% to 92%. I'm still working on figuring out how to teach such a wide range of student abilities (and probably will continue to have to work on this for the next two years).

Wednesday was my first real day of teaching. On Tuesday I had asked them if they wanted English names and they said yes. So I put up a list of female and male names on the board and started by reading through them all with the students. Then I let students choose a name whenever they answered a question. One of the boys wrote "Thank you!" on the slip of paper that I collected with each student's English and Chinese names on it. During dinner, although part of the sky was still a brilliant blue, the skies opened pretty dramatically, producing this beautiful rainbow.

Rainbow over the boys' dormitory.

On Thursday, I started really having some fun with my students. We were using verbs like climb(ed), play(ed), visit(ed), clean(ed) and nouns like classroom, teacher, tree, mountain, volleyball, and basketball. So I asked them which pairs of verb + noun were okay. They thought it was really funny when I asked "Can you play the classroom?" or, even better, "Can you climb the teacher?"

In addition to the three academic classes, we also have a fourth period that's supposed to be more fun and summer-camp like. On Tuesday I played my class four English songs and told them they could choose one for me to teach them: Haven't Met You Yet (Michael Buble), We Are the Champions, Brave (Sara Bareilles), and Let It Go. They overwhelmingly chose Let It Go (15 of 18). Apparently most of them have seen Frozen! By Friday we had gone over the whole song--the English lyrics and the Chinese translation--and sang through it a couple of times. Interestingly, although they can say "frozen fractals" okay, they have trouble with "crystallizes like an icy blast". They seem to be enjoying it though!